Easy Yoga with Peggy Cappy

>> I found out I had diabetes, and it was an absolute shock.

>> Diabetes has become an epidemic in this country, and we really need to do something.

This epidemic that's really affecting people's lives, affecting people's health, affecting their happiness and well-being.

And it's preventable.

>> My sugar level was out of kilter.

>> My grandmother died of diabetes.

My mother has diabetes.

I thought to myself, "I do not want to end up like them."

>> And then slowly bring your fingertips over to the left.

If someone's been diagnosed as pre-diabetic, it's really, really important to start a yoga program, I feel, because it's not too late.

>> Stretch to the right, and back up.

Deep breath in.

Namaste.

>> CLASS: Namaste.

>> Explore new worlds and new ideas through programs like this, made available for everyone through contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

Thank you.

>> This yoga program is especially important for people that might be subject to diabetes, or have already been diagnosed as pre-diabetic.

If you have been recently diagnosed with pre-diabetes, use that warning now.

Use that as a way that you can energize the choices that you make.

All of us make choices many different times in the day.

There's none so important as the choices you make-- what you consume, what you eat, and how you move and how you take care of this precious body.

So bring both knees into the chest.

You can use your arms to hug them in.

Now, very slowly and carefully we're going to take the knees down to the right, and come back up.

This is just a quick one.

And now knees down to the left.

If someone's been diagnosed with pre-diabetes, it's really, really important for them to use that diagnosis to make a lifestyle choice.

Because it hasn't progressed to the point that's going to cause a big disruption.

There are starting to be wonderful studies done so that we can say conclusively, "Yes, adding yoga makes a huge difference in your health, not only for diabetes, but for all the chronic diseases."

Toes are up, legs straight.

>> We're in the middle of a diabetes epidemic right now.

Rates are skyrocketing.

There are currently about 30 million people in the U.S. with diabetes.

About 95% of those cases are type two.

Type two is a chronic progressive metabolic disorder that's really tied to lifestyle.

>> And then release that leg down.

Yeah.

>> And some studies have shown that probably between 90% or 95% of new cases could be prevented if we just change our diet, change our weight if we can, change how much we exercise.

>> Diabetes has become an epidemic in this country, and we really need to do something personally and on a global level.

It's going to cost this country billions and billions of dollars in healthcare.

Because what we did earlier, we stretched the inner thighs while we were predominantly working in the hips.

But we took a pose that stretched the inner thighs.

You know, the leading cause of death for all of us is chronic disease.

And that means diabetes, COPD, pulmonary disease, heart disease, cancer.

That's what's causing us to die, and in the meantime, really have to undergo tremendous medical resources, and they're all costly.

>> My dad was a diabetic, my mom was a diabetic.

My dad's brother was a diabetic also.

In the course of time, my dad had a bunch of seizures and diabetic shocks.

He got gangrene in one foot, then he got it in the other foot.

They cut both his feet off.

They gave him artificial limbs.

Then he went back in, and they cut his legs off, so he had little stubs.

It was downhill from that point on.

He died back in 2000.

My mom was pre-diabetic at that point.

She became a diabetic on insulin.

My uncle died diabetic also.

One of my brothers has... is a diabetic, and one's a pre-diabetic.

>> Butch has been a fabulous student to watch over the past many years.

When he got serious about his health, he joined the health club where I teach.

And he was working out one day, and I just felt pulled to go over to him and say, "You know what?

You ought to give yoga a try."

Well, Butch did.

>> Katie.

>> Craig.

>> Craig.

>> Gail.

>> Gail.

>> How many people know at least one of the people's names?

All right.

He came to class.

I don't think he would say that his first class was easy, because he had a lot of repair work to do on his body.

He'd worked his body hard.

He's a tough guy.

But he stuck with it.

And it is such a delight to see the openness that's come into his body; the strength, the flexibility, the resilience that's come into his body today.

I'm so grateful to have him for a student.

And then slowly bring your fingertips over to the left.

>> Peggy grabbed me by the arm and brought me and said, "This is what you do, this is what you need."

It's got to be eight or nine years at this point.

>> So you're looking for that intense stretch.

>> Now I do it at least twice a week.

I do it at home also.

This is how I'm making my legs work better, my feet work better.

And by exercising and moving them around, it seems to loosen it up.

It doesn't bother me nearly as bad.

>> And take the bottom of the left foot against the inner right knee.

Slide that heel down the leg.

>> My name is Mary Lou, and I live in South Berwick, Maine, and I'm a multidisciplinary artist.

I've published some short stories, poems.

I am an actor.

I'm a quilt artist.

Whatever's going on at the moment, I'm into at the moment.

In 1995, I found out I had diabetes, and it was an absolute shock.

No one in the family that I knew of had diabetes except a story about a grandfather who had old age diabetes, we had heard.

I went for a regular doctor visit, and they discovered it with a urine sample.

And I had had a friend who had diabetes type one, and so I had been very close to her, and she had died after a lot of complications from her diabetes that was totally uncontrolled most of the time.

Though I am diabetes type two, I just hadn't thought of myself in relationship to diabetes.

And it was a shock.

>> I first met Mary Lou when she and her husband came to a workshop that I was teaching at Kripalu.

And she just lit up.

There's something that resonated with her in my teaching style.

And one of the things that's very important to me in my classes, especially if we have the opportunity to be together over several days, is that we all begin to learn from one another.

So the beautiful thing about sun salutations, you can do them standing, you can do them with the aid of a chair, or you can do them seated.

Take a deep breath in and stretch up, and gently open the arms.

If you have someone on either side you can give them a little pat on the back at this point.

Good job.

>> I had watched my wife go through the initial stages, and she felt better and I felt worse.

I was getting more stiff, couldn't move my neck as much as I had before.

>> And then both legs back into downward dog.

>> I wanted something to make me more flexible and be able to play with my grandson on the floor.

He was always wanting to get down and play with his trains and play with his trucks.

And poor old Papa, he had a hard time getting down and getting back up again.

>> Right foot steps forward into the lunge.

And if you're on the floor you need to walk that foot all the way forward so you have a right angle at the knee.

I don't know that he was 100% enthusiastic about that week.

But a remarkable change happened just in the course of a week.

Once it's right to the chest, lower that foot down and slide it out, or straighten the leg, and a nice big, slow circle.

And now that whole leg is... Really diving in, being willing to experiment, being open, opened him to the benefits of yoga.

He went home and took yoga seriously, so that when he appeared a year later, he was a different person.

He was a changed man.

>> There's been a history of diabetes in my family.

My grandmother died of diabetes.

My mother, she has diabetes.

And this is when I thought to myself, "I do not want to end up like them."

And then I was diagnosed ten years ago with hyperglycemia.

And when I heard that, of course it was shocking.

>> I have had the wonderful opportunity of working with Elizabeth on a regular basis.

Anytime we do a program, or I appear on TV, she is the makeup woman that I choose.

She is the best.

And not only does she do such a wonderful job, but she's such a delight.

And of course we talk about yoga while we're sitting there and while she's standing and working.

>> I was beginning to fear diabetes was knocking on my door, because of the symptoms that I was having.

>> All right, so hug that top leg into your chest.

>> I was beginning to really worry.

And that actually even built my anxiety even more, so then I, of course, needed my yoga that much more.

>> And stretch out your leg straight from your body, straight and long.

Then lift that foot off the floor, flex the ankle.

>> I've read about diabetes, and I do know, particularly women, as we get older, you know, chances increase of developing diabetes, because of the American diet.

>> Now right knee into the chest, hug that knee in.

>> Yoga has really helped me be aware of how I feel, so when I do eat, I'm conscious of what happens in my body.

And then go ahead and extend that leg out.

>> My number one thing is prevention and maintaining my mobility as I get older.

And I have the yoga, which is helping me with my mobility, and my diet, which is hopefully keeping my health in good shape and my blood sugar stable.

>> Harvard had a study, and also there was one done in Denmark, that showed a 40% less likelihood of developing diabetes if you added three and a half hours of exercise and yoga in a week.

Right arm extends upward again.

That's a half an hour a day.

And my program is such that it can be done in little pieces.

So the half an hour wouldn't even have to be done in one stretch.

You could have two or three small sections of yoga.

It all adds up to increased health, vitality and well-being for the whole body.

>> There are really good studies that have been done about how to prevent type two diabetes.

One of the best ones is the diabetes prevention program that showed that just with a little bit of weight loss and regular movement, exercise, people who had a little bit of elevated blood sugar but they weren't officially diabetic, could either stay just in the pre-diabetic category, or some of them who were able to make, you know, a little bit more aggressive changes, were actually able to go back to normal blood sugars.

>> And then a long slow breath out.

>> Practicing yoga, even with the practices that are really sitting, like meditation or breathing practices, those work through the stress reduction pathway.

So our cortisol level goes down, our stress hormones.

And that can actually bring blood glucose levels into a more normal range, too.

>> You know, you'll find extremists in the food world, you find extremists in the yoga world.

But the happy medium is an agreement that the things that I do for myself through exercise, the things that I eat for myself to create health, they start to get in alignment.

They start to affect one another.

So I think diet and yoga go hand in hand.

>> Once I was diagnosed with hyperglycemia, and I was told that I can control it with my diet, well, I took control of that.

I took that very, very seriously, because I was not going to end up like my grandmother or my mother.

I had the choice of feeling good or feeling bad.

And I chose to feel good, and I did something about it.

>> In terms of my diet and how that has helped me with my diabetes, lot more beans, chickpeas, introducing things into my diet that I didn't eat very much of.

Sea vegetables.

>> More attuned to it.

>> Food after a while felt like an enemy.

"Oh, my God, I can't eat anything, because it's going to affect my diabetes."

I also felt-- and I know a lot of diabetics feel this way-- a sort of a shame, because the culture keeps talking about it sort of like it's our fault.

We're fat, we don't try, we eat junk, that whole self responsibility thing.

But I think self responsibility only goes so far.

So I began to look at food not as an enemy, but as medicine, in the sense of, "Okay, if I eat this plant-based diet, how do I feel?"

And I began to feel really good.

>> You see, it's not actually the diabetes that causes a problem.

It's when the blood sugar goes too high that causes a breakdown in the body.

So we want things that can help naturally lower the blood sugar.

And very slowly and gently lower your feet to the floor.

So we know we can work with blood sugar through exercise, through yoga, and also by what we eat.

Right foot forward.

Whether we are concerned about developing diabetes because other people around us in our family have it, or whether we already have been diagnosed with pre-diabetes or diabetes.

Pulling the shoulders back a little bit more than usual, and lifting the heart center upwards.

And back up, and to the left.

Back up.

Deep breath in.

Folded palms, I salute you, Namaste.

>> Namaste.

>> I honor that greatness that dwells within you as you.

And thank you very much.

(applause) >> Fran.

>> I'm Katie.

>> Katie.

>> Craig.

>> Craig.

>> Gail.

>> Gail.

All right, take a moment and look around.

Now many people know at least one of the people's names?

No cheating, now.

(laughter) And let's go ahead and come up to a standing position.

When someone begins a yoga program, they very quickly see that certain physical aspects are enhanced.

Hands on the chair.

We know that yoga builds strength in the muscles, it creates flexibility in the joints.

It improves balance, it improves endurance.

All those are pretty much known.

And are you breathing?

>> Oh, yeah.

>> People know that we should have a healthy body weight, that we should be exercising.

But the question is how?

So that's what yoga is really about.

It's a tool for life change.

>> ...and just stand there talking.

>> What I love about Peggy's work is that she's allowing people to bring yoga into their home.

>> So we start in the neutral spine position.

>> Because not everybody wants to throw on a pair of spandex and go for a run.

>> So this is a great way to start at your own pace, to start very gently, work up as you can, and really get into the practice.

Because yoga's not a Band-Aid.

It's not, you know, an antibiotic that you take once and poof, your diabetes is gone.

It's a practice.

>> Keep these bent.

Yeah, it looks good.

Pull that right knee into the chest.

And as you pull that right knee in, go ahead and stretch out your left leg.

>> No matter what type of diabetes you have, lifestyle matters.

>> We're just starting to loosen it.

>> It's like we each have an internal soup, and we're the chef of our soup.

So if you change the recipe by laughing with friends or doing a little bit of yoga with Peggy, or taking a little more of your favorite vegetable in your diet, that can make you feel better.

>> And then release that leg down, down.

And just relax for a moment once you have both legs straight.

Let the feet soften in Shavasana.

Yoga for a diabetic acts to do some very important things.

When we twist and turn, and when we contract and release, we're helping the flow of blood, the circulation.

And that has benefits for the entire body.

Circulation is very important.

We need good circulation through our body for good health.

And it's particularly true for someone with diabetes.

Over time, neuropathy in the extremities takes place.

Nerves break down in the extremities, particularly in the feet and hands.

And so I believe that if you work on a daily basis really bringing in the good blood and taking out what's not supposed to be there, that cleansing process will really help maintain the body in much greater health.

>> I do yoga at least twice a week, and I do it at home also.

I found that part of my body wasn't working right.

It was working, but I was getting stiff, not working enough at home doing things.

This is how I'm making my legs work better, my feet work better.

I have a little bit of neuropathy in my feet and legs.

And by exercising and moving them around, it seems to loosen it up.

It doesn't bother me nearly as bad.

>> So yoga is also really helpful for the complications that can come along with diabetes.

So this could be pain in the feet, this could be just getting kind of out of condition.

So in addition to the metabolic effects of yoga, so lowering the blood pressure, lowering the blood sugar.

Yoga's been shown to help with balance, with muscle strength, with flexibility.

It improves circulation, it prevents falls.

So it's really an overall kind of wellness practice that can address many aspects of health.

>> I don't understand how come people just don't do yoga.

There's a lot of women that do yoga.

Very few men do it.

They think it's a sissy thing, but it's really not the case.

It's something that I think everyone ought to do.

My hips would go out, my lower back would go out.

And all of a sudden, by doing yoga, I can keep in line.

I broke my back in a car accident.

I broke four vertebrae.

And I was out of work for seven or eight months and I was going back to a chiropractor on a regular basis.

And that whole thing, it's like every month I had to go back to him.

Since I did yoga, I've been to the chiropractor twice in eight or nine years.

>> We're going to bring one knee into the chest, extend the other leg out, flex the ankle, and pull that in.

I'll move through pretty quickly.

And that's just preparing the hips.

Because when we come together, knees together, and then as we pull the knees towards the shoulders and pull them a little bit further, we can then allow the bottom of the feet to come together.

And if you can hold on at the lower legs, or preferably the ankles, you can bring those feet forward.

>> One of the things I developed in this Yoga for Diabetes program is some work with the hips, poses that work with the hips.

And I am so excited about the movements, about the yoga poses that we're doing, because the hips are really important as a stabilizer for the whole rest of the body.

When the hips are out of alignment, they put stresses on the shoulders and the neck.

They put stresses on the back.

They put stresses on the knees and the feet-- the whole body.

And then just as I showed you, take that knee a little bit to the... towards the shoulder.

>> I can move in ways that I haven't been able to move for years.

Also strengthening, which a lot of people don't realize the strengthening aspect.

When I had my open heart surgery, in ICU the first time they had me sit up, they said, "Okay, we're going to have you stand now for the first time."

And they all hovered around me.

And I just planted both legs and I sprung up.

And they went, "What?

Nobody ever does that."

And I really, again, attribute that to the work.

The thighs are nice and strong between the yoga and the walking.

But I think more the yoga.

>> I have arthritis.

Everything gets stiff because of the arthritis.

I know when it's going to rain now two days ahead of time.

And by doing yoga, all of a sudden it relieves the pressure.

You don't have to take seven aspirins to relieve it.

You just do yoga, and that's all there is to it.

>> Turn the left toes out, pull the heel up the knee.

Reach out, take hold of the knee, pull it around.

>> Yoga's had a lot of different effects on me.

Just from... from simply getting dressed and balancing, putting your socks on, to being able to lift things, being able to run with my grandson, play ball with him.

My back is... it's much, much better.

I don't have any problems with it now.

I just totally feel better.

You feel more energetic and full of life after a session.

>> And back around.

>> When I first thought of yoga, I thought of people sitting around in a circle with their legs crossed repeating "Om" 1,000 times.

And it's so much more than that.

If more people would do it, they'd see.

>> Take a moment to relax.

Shavasana.

Palms turn up, feet relax.

We need some means to deal with the amount of stress that many of us are under.

Yoga addresses stress so beautifully, particularly at the end, with the relaxation pose called Shavasana, where an ease comes over the whole body.

So notice your breathing, and use the breath as a vehicle to take you deeper into relaxation.

Imagine with each exhaling breath your body is letting go of any holding, any tightness, any tension.

One of the easiest ways to begin to control stress is an arm of yoga which is breathing practices.

There are breathing practices to energize us, to really increase our metabolism, to get us going.

But more importantly for stress, there are breathing practices that calm us down.

So for example, if you take a deep breath in, and then make that breath flow out slower, longer, and more complete, that one breath starts to change our body chemistry.

Three breaths, taking a deep breath in and then allowing that breath to come out longer and slower again sends a message to the nervous system that all's okay.

>> In spite of my best efforts to be calm and open, I'm a pretty anxious person.

I'm a bit of a type A, so I take everything to heart.

And I worry about that, because I worry about accumulated stress and what it's doing to my body.

And I can see the change in myself when I'm stressed out.

Yoga is a tremendously effective way of relieving stress.

Even the breath, just working with the breath, which is so easy to do, which can be done anywhere, even in the office or on the train ride home, it just relaxes me.

>> Yoga, and particularly yoga breathing, with emphasis on that beautiful exhale, has been shown to activate the whole rest and recovery side of our nervous system.

So yoga reduces stress and makes it easier to make healthier choices.

We love that!

(laughing) >> I have heard that one who half-breathes half-lives.

And I believe that now.

Your breath is so vitally important.

And you might say, "Well, yeah, well, we'd be dead otherwise."

But the type of breath, connecting with your breath.

Suddenly everything sort of falls away.

And there is this wonderful relaxed state.

All you have to do is just breathe.

>> Lie down on your right side in a fetal position.

Curled up-- knees in, elbows in, just enjoying the comfort of it.

Another important part of yoga is the way that we learn to pay attention.

And you know, when students really pay attention, they go, "Oh, my gosh, I can feel that part of the body open.

I can feel the circulation, I can feel increased vitality."

It's as if your body's infused with new energy, new life, new vitality.

And I'll tell you, who doesn't want that?

And now, in one piece, lower that leg ever so slowly, until the foot touches the floor.

Can you feel that stretch?

How else were we going to get that stretch?

>> Peggy has changed my life.

She'll teach you a way that you can do every move, either with a chair, or lying down, or whatever.

There's always ways to do certain moves.

And she's just reaffirmed the need for us to do yoga, my wife and I.

>> I would not give up yoga for anything.

You know, if I were suddenly debilitated and had to stay in a chair, I would be doing the chair yoga.

Yoga has really helped with the diabetes.

It has kept me strong, it has kept me moving, it has kept me feeling healthy, alive, well, and I want to keep it that way.

>> If you can breathe, you can do yoga.

So I figure as long as I can breathe, I'll do yoga.

>> There's no reason why anybody can't do yoga forever, for life.

If you walk in a walker, there's things you can do.

You can't be idle.

People need to move around.

>> What I regret is the people that are watching this show that don't have diabetes, or don't have a diagnosis of pre-diabetes, and think, "Oh, well, it's not for me."

Oh, yes, it is.

This program is so beneficial for anyone wanting to improve their health, anyone wanting to maintain health.

And we all start with palms together.

>> Right now we think about 86 million people have pre-diabetes.

But what's a little bit worrisome is only 11% of folks know it.

So that means almost 90% of people who are pre-diabetic don't know.

>> Stretch up.

>> And again, this is a preventable condition, so even if you find that your sugar is high, there are things that can be done.

Because it's not destiny.

This is a disease that we can really turn around if we're willing to make changes.

>> Push back again.

Left foot comes forward.

It is never too late to start.

As long as you're taking in a breath, you can really bring a little bit of movement.

In fact, if people think it's too late to start, that's the time to start.

Because I believe the more people need to have yoga in their life, the more quickly they will feel the benefits.

Bringing greater movement, greater opportunity to stretch, greater vitality, greater strength, into their bodies.

It's never too late to start, never.

Namaste.

>> Namaste.

>> I honor that greatness that dwells within you as you.

Before you leave, you know one of those two people whose names you learned?

Somehow, you're going to have to give them a hug.

Meanwhile, somebody else is looking for you.

(laughter) >> That's true.

>> So get two hugs on the way out, and thank you very much.

(applause) All right, let me see who one of my people were.

Captioned by Media Access Group at WGBH access.wgbh.org Explore new worlds and new ideas through programs like this, made available for everyone through contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

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